Renowned Muslim academic Dr Tariq Ramadan today rejected the possibility of a global Islamic caliphate spanning nations and rule by one caliph in the current era, insisting that Muslims find unity of Islamic values among their countries instead.

Amid the declaration by terrorist group Islamic State (IS) calling for Muslims to swear fealty to its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in Oxford University said Muslims have misunderstood the idea of unity.

"Unity is not uniformity. It's to deal with diversity. As we have it today, this old dream to be united behind one leader is not going to happen," Ramadan told reporters during an international conference on Islam.

"Let us today unite behind in the name of same principles, and fine the national way of dealing with our problems."

Ramadan said that many Muslims worldwide tend to view the call for a united "ummah", or community, as literal instead of a spiritual commonwealth.

"It also means standing against those who are betraying Islam from within," the Swiss academic added.

IS, which started out as an al-Qaeda splinter group named the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), was trying to set up an Islamic caliphate encompassing both Iraq and Syria, but has since set its sights for a global caliphate.

The terrorist group announced earlier today that it had beheaded Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

In 2014 alone, IS has beheaded an unknown number of Syrians, several Lebanese soldiers, at least 10 Kurds, two American journalists, and one American and two British aid workers.

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